For all the refinements to the game of baseball during the last 150 years, the wooden Major League bat has emerged virtually untouched by rules. Its length of 42 inches is the same as was decreed in 1869, and the diameter of its barrel, 2-3/4 inches, has been increased by a mere quarter-inch. A tiny hollowed-out "cup" is permitted at the barrel's end, while 18 inches of the handle can be "covered or treated" with anything "to improve the grip."
History
During baseball's infancy, a player made his own bat and brought it to the game. Nobody cared about how long it was or how much it weighed. This was during the 1850s, and players were learning that the bigger the bat, the better their chances of hitting the ball. Round was better too; flat bats were only used to bunt. In 1859, a baseball organizing committee decreed that a bat could not exceed 2-1/2 inches in diameter. That's when players began hiring woodworkers to make their bats. In 1869, it was declared that a bat could be no longer than 42 inches.
Birth of Manufacturing
In 1884, John Hillerich, then 17 the and son of a woodworker, was in the grandstands for a Professional American Association game when Louisville's star player, Pete Browning, broke his favorite bat. Not to worry, Hillerich told Browning: He would make him a new one at his father's shop. That night, with Browning looking on and taking an occasional swing with it, Hillerich crafted the first custom bat. The next day, Browning used it to hit safely three times. Soon, more Louisville players were asking Hillerich to make their bats, and opposing players did too. By 1897, the now-legendary J.F. Hillerich and Son Louisville Slugger trademark was in vogue, and baseball bats were about to become big business.
White Ash
The preferred wood for baseball bats was originally wagon tongue, but as other types of tried were tried, the white ash trees from Pennsylvania and upstate New York emerged as the best. In colors of grayish brown, tan and pale yellow, ash heartwood met the developing criteria for hardness, fine grains, lightness and flexibility. "When a ball is hit with ash, (it) doesn't just jump off (the bat)," according to All-About-Wood-Bats.com. "It first compresses the wood, then like a spring board, it leaves with more force than maple."
The Bat Business
By the turn of the century J. F. Hillerich and Son was making signature bats for Browning, Willie Keeler, John McGraw and Honus Wagner, among other stars. Already in the business of selling sporting goods, A.G. Spalding and Brothers was producing their popular Mushroom and Gold Seal bats, and Wright and Ditson was marketing a Nap Lajoie signature bat with a distinctive double-ring handle. Not to be outdone in the flurry of bat innovation, Hillerich introduced its new cork-grip bat handles in 1914.
Contemporary Scene
In the 1970s, the ranks of wood bats in amateur baseball and softball were overrun by shiny new varieties of the lighter and more durable aluminum. Professional leagues nevertheless stood firm with wood, leaving all others, in the good-natured words of an aluminum buff, "with a totally unique signature sound, a hip, modern, metallic twang instead of that stodgy, old, immensely satisfying, universally beloved crack of the bat." In the seasons following 2001, when Barry Bonds used maple bats to hit 73 home runs, maple briefly threatened white ash as the wood of choice--until maple revealed an alarming tendency to shatter upon impact with the ball.
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